What did the Supreme Court do?
By Jacob Sullum . . . Sunday, March 5, [2023] marks[ed]the 20th anniversary of Smith v. Doe, a U.S. Supreme Court decision that approved retroactive application of Alaska’s sex offender registry, deeming it preventive rather than punitive. That ruling helped propagate several pernicious myths underlying a policy that every state has adopted without regard to its justice or effectiveness.
Writing for the majority in Smith, Justice Anthony Kennedy took it for granted that collecting and disseminating information about people convicted of sex offenses made sense as a public safety measure. But that premise was always doubtful.
The vast majority of sexual assaults, especially against children, are committed by relatives, friends or acquaintances, and the perpetrators typically do not have prior sex-offense convictions. That means they would not show up on a registry even if someone bothered to check.
It is therefore not surprising that research finds little evidence to support Kennedy’s assumption that publicly accessible registries protect potential victims. Summarizing the evidence in a 2016 National Affairs article, Eli Lehrer noted that “virtually no well-controlled study shows any quantifiable benefit from the practice of notifying communities of sex offenders living in their midst.”
Read the rest of the piece at the Chicago Sun-Times.
Jacob Sullum has written many an article pointing out the insanity of the SOR. I highly recommend you search out his articles and familiarize yourself with them. He is a true friend of logic and rational punishment.
I agree but would add that I highly recommend (in addition to you reading an becoming familiar with these facts) that you publish (or paraphrase) his articles (and others that are clear and succinct) and send them to as many local, state, national and international planets that you can get email addresses for.
By “planets” I mean, politicians, judges, newspaper and website editors, celebrities and business owners/wealthy entrepreneurs. – People who are influential, usually because of money, but also due to fame.
Tell, Tell, Tell!!!!
Speak, Speak, Speak!!!!
Advertise, advertise, advertise!!!!
This is a Never Ending. How is it Possible that the SO Registry is a Preventative? What’s wrong with the Justice System? A Waste of Taxpayers money. Who really cares for the American People?
smith v doe did not condone in person registration. the in person registration requirement shares all the elements of kidnapping. in person registration is worth a lot of money to government, private enterprise and the general public who enjoys the luxury of free background checks from the comfort of their home. in person registration is exploitation of a subclass. human trafficking. involuntary servitude.
imlo.
Maybe this is finally the beginning of the end. Excellent article!!
The United States Government will take any matter they deem useful and work on it, twist it around and hire more people to twist it some more. Then the people twisting it will need assistants to twist it some more. Thus the Sex Offender Management Board, The assistant twisters to the Media and Attorney Generals of our vicious government. Their sole job is to twist the minds of the public into the mold that they need to totally control everyone and have everyone on a list of some sort. Unfortunately we were the first to start the governments listing of the citizens.
It’s not enough to say it doesn’t work or is not helpful or provides no benefit. Courts don’t care how effective a law is. We have lots of laws on the books which do not deliver on what they were intended to achieve. Rather we have not yet successfully been able to articulate to judges the level of damage they cause to people whom the government has publicly deemed a danger to society. It’s about the harm a law causes to an individual, the slaying of a person’s Constitutional rights, not its ineffectiveness.
When is enough enough? A person that has registered with the court system due to a pass history especially if they were young and in a foolish relationship should not be punished for the rest of a persons life. Not everything is black and white in life.
Then if that person has difficulties in their life and forgets to register or unable to register for a reason. Such as health reason, emotional reason, due to all the stress he as faced not being able to hold down a job, get housing and so many more issues that follows and ruins them for life. How does society expect them to function in life if they are not able to move forward to be part of a productive society. It is a catch 22 for them. They cant seal their records, and once someone finds out about their past if something go wrong in their relationship the past is used against them. Are you kidding me this is a justice society no it is a system that sets people up for failure it keeps them in the system> nothing like modern day slavery. Not gossip it is a fact. When is MA going to change is system and provide those who are released with wrap around services assist with housing and work with HUD to provide these individuals with the support to become a product human being in the community. Instead of creating more crime just to survive. DO WE ALL WALK ON WATER NOW.
registry is a punishment is put all judges on the registry and put all there info that we have to, car, job, name, address etc… Then they must register for 1 year after that then come back and tell us if it’s a punishment or is it civil commitment, there answers will be “The Registry ” is a Punishment.